A New Enemy Rises
by Starrylizard
Summary: A new enemy is unveiled, as Agents Sheppard and Weir race to complete their mission and rescue an informant.


Title: A New Enemy Rises

Author: Starrylizard

Rating: Teen-friendly (language and violence comparable to the show)

Summary: A new enemy is unveiled, as Agents Sheppard and Weir race to complete their mission and rescue an informant.

Notes: Written for Spygate. Thanks to Jess for her suggestions on the draft and to Sushie for the idea of renaming Steve and Bob and to Rinne for the beta. All comments welcome.

OOOOOOOOO

**The Briefing**

Agents Weir and Sheppard sat down in the briefing room. They had been called in on short notice, but that was nothing unusual. As soon as they sat down, Caldwell got right to business. He dimmed the lights and started up the projector, meaning that for a while all that could be seen and heard in the room was its flickering light and the puttering of its small motor. Finally Caldwell began to speak in his usual brusque and to-the-point style.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice. You've been called in, because we have come into startling new information concerning a new kid on the block. The group is calling itself The Hive and they appear to be affiliated with the notorious Wraith Family."

He clicked to the first slide. It was a picture of two mean-looking men in suits. The scowls they displayed for the camera should have cracked the lens.

"Wow, you could put that photo next to 'Ugly' in the dictionary," smirked Sheppard. "So who are we looking at?"

"These guys are the only two members of the Wraith family that our agency has previously come across: the brothers Stefano and Roberto Wraith. They were both killed by our agents in past operations. Soon after, the group went underground and they disappeared off our radar completely. That was about three years ago. In fact, Agent Weir was responsible for Stefano's death I believe. Anyway, it now appears that they have been busy during that time. They've developed a new super drug that goes by the street name of 'The Enzyme' and it's selling like hotcakes. So far we don't know what it does, but several large factions are lining up to out-bid each other."

Caldwell once again hit the button, moving onto the next slide. The picture was an aerial shot of a large salmon pink-coloured Spanish villa. Several light aircraft were parked on a landing strip nearby and there were trucks parked at the entrance. He took up the monologue again.

"This is one of their bases of operation; though we believe there are several cells, this being just one of them. According to our source, the individual cells are united by a shadowy figure known only as 'The Godmother'. Your mission will be to obtain some of the new drug, destroy the facility and rescue our informant."

"So, nothing too hard then," quipped Elizabeth, earning her a stern look from Caldwell as he continued the briefing without a pause.

The man once again hit the button, thus bringing up yet another new slide. This time the photo was of an attractive dark-skinned lady. Her expression was of calm vigilance, composed, yet wary and attentive. She was strikingly beautiful. Agent Sheppard suddenly sat up at the sight, earning him a swift kick to the shins from his partner.

"This is our informant inside The Hive. Her name is Teyla Emmagan and she's agreed to help our cause in exchange for asylum."

With that, Caldwell switched off the projector and flicked on the lights.

**The Mission**

That was how the two agents ended up in the south of Spain, driving a milk truck toward a certain salmon-coloured Spanish villa. The truck rumbled and bumped along the narrow, windy road as they neared the mansion. They had flown into Spain undetected and proceeded to ambush the milk truck, taking the place and clothing of the Hive employees therein. The truck's precious cargo of Enzyme-laden milk had been quickly switched for the normal stuff with the help of another Atlantis Cooperative team and was already on its way back to headquarters for analysis. Sheppard couldn't help but be thankful that this time he was at least travelling in the front seat, his nose crinkling slightly at the memory of smelling like rancid milk on a previous mission.

As they neared the Villa, it could be seen for the mansion it truly was and pretty soon Sheppard backed the truck into one of its many open garage doors and waited as planned for the milk to be off-loaded. So far the intelligence had been spot on and the mission was going according to plan. Once the milk was off-loaded, they were to drive back down the road, pausing briefly to pick up the informant, before heading back to the checkpoint. Easy as pie! Of course, in Agent Weir's experience, things never went exactly to plan and, unfortunately, this mission was to be no exception. One of the men unloading the cargo moved over to the driver-side door, tapping on the glass and indicating that Sheppard should roll down the window.

"Usted tiene un alumbrador del cigarrillo?"

Quick as a flash, Sheppard was making a valiant show of attempting to roll the window down and failing dismally. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the other side, where Elizabeth, who was fluent in Spanish, sat. The man returned the shrug and laughing moved over to the other window, repeating the question to Elizabeth and holding up his unlit cigar. Rolling down the window, she smiled and pulled a lighter from her pocket.

"Gracias señora." He smiled, but then appeared to do a double take. "Señora?" he repeated, his large bushy eyebrows moving up toward his forehead in a show of confusion. "Por qué hay una señora en el carro?"

At that moment they knew they'd been had; their cover was blown. While Elizabeth attempted to explain in fluent Spanish that she'd taken over from a sick driver at the last minute, they both silently reached for their weapons. The man obviously wasn't buying it and as he walked away to raise the alert, Sheppard gunned the engine and they took off at top speed heading for the landing strip. Unfortunately the top speed of a milk truck isn't all that awe inspiring and pretty soon there was a four-wheel drive barreling down on them.

Agent Weir checked her weapon and proceeded to lean precariously out the window, letting off a few rounds at the vehicle behind, before thumping back into her seat. She was breathing hard, but a large adrenalin-fueled grin beamed across her face.

"Shotgun?" suggested John.

"Ohhh, good idea."

She leaned back behind the seat, picking up the 12 gauge shotgun that had come as an added bonus with the truck.

"Here goes again."

This time, the shot hit the windscreen of the four-wheel drive, causing it to careen off the side of the narrow road; not bad considering the rocking and bumping of the truck she was shooting from. Weir leaned back in the seat looking smug.

"Don't get too comfy there Sparky, there's more company on the way."

John was taking quick glances in the rearview mirror, in between wrestling with the less than happy truck steering. With that comment, several more shots rang out, hitting the truck and narrowly missing Elizabeth's head.

"Thanks for the warning," she added dryly.

As Sheppard continued to struggle with keeping the truck on the road, Weir nimbly climbed into the back section of the truck. In their hasty departure, only one of the unloading doors had been shut; the other was now swinging wildly on its hinges and through the open door she could see three motorcycles bearing down on their location. The riders black helmets reflected the hot Spanish sun as they steadily gained speed on the truck.

Holding on, so as not to go flying out the back, she carefully lowered herself down behind the closed door and reached into a secret compartment hidden in the heel of her shoe. From this, she pulled out a small metal sphere, which she twisted along a middle line and silently counted to three, before aiming it at the nearest motorcyclist. It blew with a loud bang right in front of the bike, sending the rider flying through the air. With a satisfied grin, Weir then reached for the sphere hidden in her other shoe and repeated the process. This time, however, the cyclist was aware of the ploy and steered hard right to avoid the small grenade and thus sent himself into the ditch.

_Two down, one to go._ Elizabeth was still plotting how to take out the last motorcycle, when a well-aimed knife flew through the air, striking the man with remarkable precision, taking him out without a sound. Hard on the trail of the knife she had thrown, the informant, Teyla, could be seen running toward the truck. Her long legs pumped rhythmically, her long hair flying out in dark waves as she ran.

"Slow down, John," Elizabeth yelled to the front, but he was already on it. As the truck slowed, the woman dove nimbly into the back and they sped off once more.

"So glad you could make it."

"As am I," she replied.

They reached the airstrip with no further trouble and alighted from the truck at a run, aiming toward the nearest aeroplane. Weir and Teyla moved to get the front and back wheel chocks respectively, while Sheppard started up the small cargo plane's engines. As Elizabeth reached down to remove the chocks, she was suddenly stopped dead in her tracks by the sound of a weapon being cocked somewhere close behind her. Turning around, she was confronted by the sight of an incredibly ugly and angry-looking Spanish man who happened to be pointing a pistol at her head. His dark hair hung down in greasy waves and his moustache was turned up at the edges. He was carrying a black helmet in the other hand, identifying him to her as the second rider she'd previously sent careening off the road. He stared at her with squinty, mean-looking eyes, as if sizing her up, before he finally spoke in heavily accented English.

"My name is Diablo Alberto Fernando Dario Antonio Wraith. You killed my brother; prepare to die."

He brought the gun up higher, dropping his helmet so as to steady his aim with both hands. Elizabeth squeezed her eyes closed involuntarily and dropped to the ground in a protective huddle as the sound of a shot rang out. It was a few seconds before she opened her eyes again as she realized she felt no pain. Directly in front of her lay a very dead Diablo Wraith and standing behind the dead man was Agent John Sheppard, his gun still smoking in his hand.

Taking a deep breath, she grinned and picked herself up off the ground. "I knew I kept you around for something."

"Really? And I thought it was just because of my roguish good looks and personal charm."

Elizabeth stepped over Alberto Fernando Dario Antonio Wraith's body and reached up to gently pull John's head down, caressing his cheek. She then planted a kiss on his smiling mouth. The kiss was soon interrupted by the discreet sound of someone clearing their throat. Teyla stood near the aeroplane door, pointing at something behind them.

"If it is not too much trouble, I think we need to be moving now."

All three quickly entered the plane and they had it taxiing down the runway just in time to take off before the approaching vehicles could block their path. The underbelly of the plane just skimmed the top of one of the cars. Safely in the air, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Teyla smiled grimly from her place in the cargo hold. She had reached safety, but safe would be a relative term from now on. She worried about The Hive and what the Wraith family would do to her if they ever caught up with her, and she was painfully aware of her need for The Enzyme. Her personal supply of the drug was small and she feared that her only hope at a drug-free life lay with the Cooperative medical team being as good as they were rumored to be.

In the front compartment of the plane, Sheppard turned to Weir, a more playful grin showing on his face.

"Should we _blow_ this joint then?"

His grin widened at the terrible pun he'd just made, but Weir simply nodded an acknowledgement and pulled a small detonator out from her vest. She took a deep breath, as if savouring the moment, before she pushed the button and leaned forward to stare intently out the window. They were rewarded shortly with the large red-orange plume of an explosion, as the bombs hidden inside the milk containers detonated and the Spanish Villa went out with a bang.

"Big boom," sighed Elizabeth.

"Random kisses," mumbled John.

Neither heard the other, yet they both settled back comfortably in their seats and they headed for home.

The End.

Spanish translation: (It's Babelfish Spanish, so any corrections welcome!)

1. "Usted tiene un alumbrador del cigarrillo?" (Do you have a light?)

2. "Por qué hay una señora en el carro?" (Why is there a lady in the truck?)


End file.
